The HSP’s “X Base,” a New Driver for Taiwan’s Technology Industry
In its 2018 Global Competitiveness Report, the World Economic Forum (WEF) ranked Taiwan fourth in terms of innovation capability. To accommodate the country’s industrial transformation, the Hsinchu Science Park Bureau (HSPB) is keen to draw on its experience in developing the Hsinchu, Jhunan, Longtan, Tongluo, and Yilan parks as well as the Hsinchu Biomedical Science Park. Under the vision of reengineering the Hsinchu Science Park (HSP) by “developing software to sustain hardware,” the HSPB strives for a conducive startup base that can help technology companies take advantage of the resources of academia and the research community to maximize their R&D momentum. Equal emphasis is placed on nurturing talent to further increase the country’s R&D capacity. The ultimate objective is to incorporate Taiwan’s R&D ecosystem—talent, technology, and capital—into the international community and create an innovative R&D hub armed with regional strengths and advantages.
As an urban science park, the HSP’s “X Base” is designed to also act as a hotspot of culture and the arts in Hsinchu City where the technology industry is to operate in a humanistic environment. Open space and vegetated corridors are to be set aside so that technology operations and citizen lives can co-exist in harmonious proximity. Like a seed sown in the soil, it promises to grow into a belt-shaped magical forest in the HSP that brings together culture and the arts, technology, and ecology.
This project covers some 3.74 hectares. On July 15, 2020, the Executive Yuan, or Cabinet, approved an outlay of NT$18.236 billion for the project that would be undertaken in stages. The first phase is to develop some 1.633 hectares and feature the First Software Building along with drainage and landscaping projects. The First Software Building will be a steel structure with three underground levels and 11 above. Due to be completed in 2023, it will have 75,000 square meters of floor space and offer 49 office units.
